Thursday, August 12, 2010

Thank You

The teachers and students of Hickman Street School were many. Just how many will never be known. I would guess that for each year there would be at least one class each per grades one through seven. Thus for my family's lifetime, roughly 1910 to 1960, there would have been somewhere around 50 X 7 = 350 teachers. Assuming approximately 25 students per class there would be 50 X 7 X 25 = 8750 students who passed through the hallways and sat in the classrooms. What did they do with their lives? What impact did the teachers have shaping and molding these lives?

I still recall the names of all my teachers. Let's see: Mrs. Williams (1st grade), Mrs. Stevens (2nd grade), Mrs. Scott (3rd grade), Mrs. Walden (4th grade), Mrs. Gravett (5th grade), Mrs. Ragland (6th grade), and Mrs. Culton (7th grade). I never got to thank these teachers face to face, for what they contributed to my life growing up in those hallways of Hickman Street School. By now, they all are gone to that great schoolhouse in the sky. Thank you for sharing your lives with me. Thank you for helping me learn, and learn how to sit still, and learn how to grow. Thank you, the teachers of Hickman Street School.

2 comments:

Jerry, you & I shared the same teachers fourth through seventh grades. Those ladies, our instructors, were there for their love of the students and educating them. My mother taught sixth grade at Hickman for quite a few years and as I recall, her very first class there was overcrowded with 36 students. The numbers got better through the years as more teachers were hired.